


A Letter From the Heart

by BlueClue182



Series: STRANGER ANGST [3]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, Angst, Epistolary, Mother-Son Relationship, One Shot, Short One Shot, and I love it, more than every flashback in Stranger Things could do, requested by Leia, yeah it's a fancy word for "this fic has a letter"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 08:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19989043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueClue182/pseuds/BlueClue182
Summary: Billy gets a letter from someone in his past who refuses to let old wounds heal.





	A Letter From the Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Rating is for language. 500 words exactly.   
> Prompted by this tumblr post and requested by my General Leia: https://tmblr.co/ZNPvTy2Y5D7t1

Billy crumbled the letter and tossed it into the trash can. Maybe he’d light it on fire later. For now, another beer, another set, another head-banging, speed limit shattering drive down the coast.

Not the coast. Never the coast again.

Later, at the revving of his car, Max plucked the letter out of the trash. She knew as soon as it arrived it would cause trouble and she stayed out of his way, waiting for an opportunity to sneak in and read it.

“ _Billy,_

_Thank you for the birthday card you didn’t send. You would think of all days to remember, my birthday would be easy enough since you have the same one. Less things to throw away is nice, I suppose. I hope the weather in Indiana is alright. Nothing can compare to California, but maybe it’s at least agreeable. I wanted to let you know I’m moving in with Richard and I won’t be forwarding my mail. Don’t worry about my new address, the cards you don’t send will get there just fine._

_Richard and I are talking about starting a family—a good one this time. The kind where we can all go to the beach together and read books before bed time and where I don’t hate having to share space with the men in my life. I’m sure you understand. Your father was already the way he was by the time we got together but I was hoping you’d be different. I was hoping you’d be a good boy and that you’d love me and I could love you, too. Of course, I was wrong and it seems like I continue to be wrong. I know I deserve better than you. I realize that, but you were so broken… I didn’t want to be the one that made you shatter. It turns out I was holding on to glass shards from the very beginning._

_I suppose I should apologize for sticking around as long as I did. If I’d left earlier we never would have had you in the first place and then none of these things would have to be said. But hindsight is 20/20 and we can’t change the past so here we are instead writing letters full of words that don’t matter. Well. I’m writing letters. You’re probably not even reading them for all the times you’ve written back._

_Since you were born, and you do exist, I hope you’re doing well. I hope you and your father have come to some agreements about how to co-exist and that he’s changed a little, even if you haven’t. I hope the family he decided to leave me for is good for all of you, and that little shit kid is better behaved than you were._

_-Mom_ ”

Max sighed and crumpled the letter back up. Not that it forgave Billy’s behavior, but damn. If she couldn’t change Billy himself, maybe, now that he’d mellowed, she could at least give him the tiniest of breaks.


End file.
